OVIEDO, Fla. – An 11-year-old boy has to appear in court next week after he was pulled over for riding his dirt bike on an Oviedo road.
Cade Kirchner said he was afraid of getting in trouble because he had never been in a situation like this before.
“And now I’m kind of scared to ride my dirt bike,” Kirchner said.
Kirchner’s father, Chris Kirchner, helped him start a summer business selling squirrel tables. Cade said he worked throughout the summer and saved $900 to buy the dirt bike.
Police stopped Kirchner on Labor Day while he was riding toward Sweetwater Park with his fishing pole. Chris Kirchner says his son was riding in the shoulder of the roadway.
Kirchner said he chose the shoulder because riding on the sidewalk would require him to travel slowly and could scare pedestrians.
“If I go on the sidewalk, then first of all I can only go 10, and also it’s going to scare the pedestrians,” Kirchner said. “If I go in the road, I’m going to make the cars mad, so I decided to go in the gutters. Nobody’s riding in the gutters.”
A uniform traffic report cites Kirchner for allegedly operating an unregistered motor vehicle without insurance, without a motorcycle endorsement, and without eye protection.
A probable cause affidavit on the Seminole County Clerk of Courts website says the officer believed the bike to be a motorcycle because it had pegs instead of pedals.
Police also seized the dirt bike and called a city wrecker to tow it, according to Chris Kirchner.
“She arrested him, printed him, they seized his bike,” he said. “They called in the city wrecker for this little, tiny electric bike and winched it on up there.”
Kirchner said he understands his son may have violated traffic rules, but believes police went too far.
“The officer treated it as if it was an adult on a motorcycle,” he said.
Cade Kirchner was fingerprinted and given a court summons. An officer also told him he could face a warrant if he failed to appear in court.
“It was probably one of the most absurd overreaches of justice that I’ve ever seen,” Chris Kirchner said.
Kirchner is scheduled to appear in court next Tuesday morning, which means he will miss class. Chris Kirchner said he plans to contact the district attorney or state attorney’s office to ask that the case be dismissed.
